M.J. Hur's victory was also the first Top 10 of her LPGA career.  Her previous best finish was a T13 at Sybase back in May.  If you missed her name on my most recent Top 70 list, that's because she wasn't there.  M.J. rated #178 on my chart coming into the Safeway Classic, mainly because of a poor scoring average and seven missed cuts.  She deserves not only the Big Surprise Award for this week, she beats out Eunjung Yi for Big Surprise of the year.  Note that I didn't say "Fluke" - can't declare that until we see how Hur follows this up.

Yesterday was the fourth time since her last victory in October 2007 that Suzann Pettersen has held or been tied for the lead on the Sunday back nine.  At the 2008 Wegmans she led by three shots with only six holes to go, played those holes in +2 and lost to Eun Hee Ji by two.  At Kapalua last fall, Suzann led by three at the turn, played the back nine in +1 and lost to Morgan Pressel by one.  At this year's Sybase, she was tied for the lead through 11 holes but played the last seven holes in +3 to lose by four to Ji Young Oh.  And yesterday she led by three with six holes to play, played them in +2 and lost in the playoff.  When she took that three-shot lead with the birdie at 12 and then forced herself to make a four-footer to save par at 13, I said to myself "here she goes again".  And she did.  There's a real mental block at work against Pettersen right now and if she's not careful, her fiery nature could cause her entire game to blow up.

Serious kudos to Michele Redman for collecting her first Top 10 since the 2007 State Farm and her first Top 5 since the 2006 Ginn Open.  Missing a three-footer on the first playoff hole must have been heartbreaking but she did herself proud.  She even got the Big Surprise yanked out from under her (sorry about that).  Amazingly, it was Redman's first playoff appearance in 18 years on the LPGA Tour.

Pornanong Phatlum made the field when Paula Creamer DNS'd.  She made the cut but didn't play very well on Sunday, posting a 78 to finish T60.  She did have one big highlight though.  Coming off a triple-bogey 8 at 15, Phatlum aced 16 and earned Shot of the Day honors from ESPN.  The $4157 she earned this week doesn't sound like much but by virtue of having earned money period, she will move up to around Priority position #170 when the status changes are made after Samsung.  That would give her a decent chance of making the Navistar field (event #23).

I haven't done the calculations yet but it appears that Lorena Ochoa will fall out of my #1 spot this week (although I won't be posting an updated ranking for a few more weeks).  Her T49 finish was her worst of the year and her worst since missing the cut at the 2005 Longs Drugs.  She doesn't get the Big Disappointment Award though.  In-Kyung Kim missed the cut by a shot and Jiyai Shin finished T65 after I picked her to win.  They get to share the dubious honor.